Amid a nationwide downturn in violent crime, New Orleans’ children have seemingly been left behind. Seventeen juveniles have been murdered in the city so far this year, according to NOPD, and the state leads the nation for gun deaths among children. But with a flood of federal ARPA dollars and a new strategic plan to build a continuum of juvenile justice services that goes beyond policing and prosecution, officials hope to turn the tide.
“Crime prevention … is more effective in the lives of younger offenders,” District Attorney Jason Williams said in a written statement. “It adopts and learns from the words of Desmond Tutu: ‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.’”
A National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) report initiated by criminal justice commissioner Tenisha Stevens and District A council member Joseph Giarrusso offers recommendations for the allocation of $4.45 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars dedicated to juvenile justice funding in Orleans Parish. Its child-centric model brings wraparound mental health and intervention services, among others, to the forefront
The nonprofit California-based policy and research organization suggested diverting about $2.2 million annually for two years to Orleans Parish Juvenile Court’s assessment center ($335,000 per year), credible messenger programs for youth ($250,000 per year) and youth on probation ($500,000 per year), restorative justice ($300,000 per year), mental health programming ($500,000 per year), additional coordination staffers in the mayor’s office ($240,000 per year) and technical assistance ($100,000 per year).
Giarrusso believes the city should be able to find the resources to fund those programs after federal funds run out in two years. Jefferson Parish, he pointed out, funds juvenile justice services to the tune of $15 million annually via a dedicated property tax millage. New Orleans, by contrast, has only allocated $1 million, and those funds were cut during the COVID pandemic.
“The literature says the earlier you talk to kids and intervene, the less likely they are to touch this system again, so why wouldn’t we want to invest?” Giarrusso said. “We’re providing better outcomes for kids — and spending money the front end saves money on the back end.”
Dana Kaplan, a justice reform partner at NICJR, said that organization is working with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and Giarrusso to “determine how to best support them moving forward in their critical mission to both improve public safety and opportunities for the city’s youth.”
Williams’ office is committed to its role in the program, partnering with Center for Restorative Approaches to offer a restorative justice diversion alternative that centers the needs of the victim while treating defendants humanely.
To arrive at their recommendations, NICJR interviewed 20 juvenile justice stakeholders, including representatives from the Office of Juvenile Justice, LSU School of Public Health, Orleans Public Defenders and Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights.
The report also included sobering numbers about an increase in gun arrests involving youth. Last year, 20% of juvenile arrests in Orleans Parish involved firearms-related charges, up from roughly 10% in 2021.
The uptick coincides with a spike in murders involving juvenile victims and a surge in juvenile jail populations. Last year, 22 children were murdered, a 15-year high. So far this year, at least 17 youths have been murdered in New Orleans — and that number may be an undercount because of inaccuracies in the NOPD’s juvenile data reporting system, according to the New Orleans Police Department. Twenty-one homicides have involved juvenile victims, police said.
“Whenever a student dies, it’s not a statistic,” said Orleans Parish School Board president Olin Parker. “It’s somebody that teachers have built longterm relationships with, someone students have been sitting next to for years — and all of a sudden, that person isn’t there.”
Adults comprise the majority of suspects arrested for murdering children in 2023, according to NOPD data. Suspects have been apprehended in six of the 17 murders involving juveniles in 2023, according to NOPD. Four of those suspects were adults. Two of them were also juveniles.
“Our youth aren’t getting weapons on their own. It’s not peer to peer,” said Jamar McKneely, CEO of the InspireNOLA network. “In many cases, it’s adult to peer.”
McKneely said children carry guns for two reasons: They believe they need firearms for their survival, or they’re being groomed by adult offenders to do crimes and potentially take the lesser legal hit if they’re caught.
Most youth who enter the juvenile justice system — about 90% — get arrested only once or twice, and for low-level offenses, the report states. And a disproportionate number of young people arrested are Black — 95% in a parish that is 70% Black, the NICJR found in its analysis of 833 juvenile arrests by NOPD in 2022.
Parker, who was among the stakeholders interviewed for the NICJR report, emphasized that the vast majority of students are “truly incredible.” McKneely hopes the new funds will help students access services “instead of being locked up at an early age.” He’s looking forward to a NOLALOVE student rally at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Xavier University Convocation Center, where activist Ruby Bridges and ESSENCE Ventures CEO Caroline Wanga will speak.
That positive messaging, he said, is a crucial counterweight for children struggling in violent and dire circumstances — and it’s the kind of youth development programming NICJR stakeholders hope to see more of.
“We’re going to have hard conversations about what to do to reduce crime,” McKneely said. “Our youth need inspiration and aspiration to get them through these times.”